BY MILES LAYTON

A round-up of church news…

This week, the Albemarle Observer talks about Edenton Baptist Church and includes Advent happenings from a few other area churches. 

The goal of this series is to positively promote church happenings in Northeastern North Carolina. If you have news events and such that you’d like to see in the Albemarle Observer, send them to albemarle.observer@gmail.com   

Edenton Baptist Church – Kelly Cross suggested this church. Much appreciated!  

I’ve attended to more than a few sermons, even a funeral, at the church. In 2017, I wrote about the church’s 200th anniversary for the Chowan Herald.  

Founded in 1817, this church has played a key role not only in the community, but in the state’s history. 

Located at 200 S. Granville St., worship services start at 11 a.m. Sunday – lasts about an hour; very large congregation, but a welcoming feel.    

The sanctuary is a beautiful place to worship – dome, wooden pews, and decades old hymn books – all refreshingly old school. The choir is superb. I was first introduced to the choir’s musical ability by longtime choir member Sue Bunch who worked at the Chowan Herald for 50 years. 

The handbell choir, which performed during Sunday’s services and two concerts during the Candlelight Tour of Homes, was fantastic!

Sunday’s service kicked off with the lighting of the joy candle. Here’s what was printed in the bulletin.

No matter what troubles overwhelm us today, Isaiah reminds us that in all our preparation and passionate pursuit of God’s coming kingdom, we must not forget that God’s salvation has come and is coming. “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” With joy you will remember that God’s salvation is present among us. 

Faced with the troubles of the world, we choose to live in a joyful presence to God and one another.  

We light this candle of joy as a sign of our commitment to be present to ourselves, our friends, our families and our neighbors that in sharing our vulnerable lives we might share in the glorious joy of God’s salvation together.  

Sunday’s sermon – What Then Should We Do? – is published at the end of this column.

In other staff news, Jackie Copeland, another Chowan County native, became the Director of Music after 12 years of serving as associate director. Anna Kay Laughton, former choral director at John A. Holmes High School, has assumed the assistant director’s position.  The sanctuary choir has added new members since this transition; a youth choir has also been formed.  

Here’s Strawser’s biography: 

He holds the Master of Divinity degree from Baylor University and the Doctor of Ministry degree from Hardin-Simmons University. He enjoys spending time with his family, as well as reading and watching Baylor football and basketball.

In other church news, Rocky Hock Baptist Church will have a live nativity scene between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18, at the church located at 113 Rocky Hock Church Road. Hot chocolate will be served.  

Meanwhile at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Pastor Melody Perdue gave a great Sunday sermon, very relatable. Trying to distill Perdue’s sermon down to a sentence or two is quite difficult, but here it goes. God is a gardener who helps weed out the bad stuff so that you can focus on the good stuff. Change is possible to restore your soul. Forgiveness too.  

Christmas services at St. Paul’s:

• Sunday, Dec. 22 – pageant at 11 a.m; Also, the Longest Night Service starts at 5 p.m. 
• Tuesday, Dec. 24 – Christmas Eve services at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. (9:30 p.m. special music). My advice for folks considering the 10 p.m. service – one of my favorites – get there early to grab a good pew up front or perhaps one upstairs in the balcony so you get a bird’s eye view of the service.  
• Sunday, Dec. 29 – Rite I service with music at 10 a.m.  

Located at 101 W. Gale St., Edenton, St. Paul’s normal Sunday service schedule:

• 8 a.m. Service, Rite I
• 9 a.m. Breakfast
• 9:45 a.m. Christian Education
• 11 a.m. Service, Rite II
• Nursery Hours 9:30-12:30

In other church news, carpenters continue their work at St. George’s Orthodox Church. When I first attended a service there a few years back, the church’s present sanctuary had just been acquired, moving from the old railroad station that is now a home located at the corner of East King and Oakum streets. Since returning to Edenton and seeing St. George’s sanctuary again, it is clear that the work to restore the church has progressed quite nicely.  

Quick note – the smell of incense during Sunday services is nice. And when thinking of the carpenters plying their trade at St. George’s, one can’t help but think that Christ too was a carpenter, maybe He is guiding their tools.  

Located at 212 E. Church St., Edenton, St. George’s Church’s services include Great Vespers at 5 p.m. each Saturday and, every Sunday, at 9:35 a.m. the Prayers and Psalms and at 10 a.m. either the Typica with homily or else the Divine Liturgy.  Christmas services will be Great Vespers at 4 p.m. on Dec. 24 and, on Dec. 25, at 8:45 a.m. the Prayers and Psalms and at 9 a.m. the Divine Liturgy.

During Pastor Strawser’s sermon, he talked about the difference between what you want “for” Christmas and what you should want “from” Christmas.  

What do you want “from” Christmas this year? 

Before you answer that, notice that I didn’t say “for” – I said “from.” “For” is easier to answer than “from.” Everybody has a list. It might not be as extensive as your kids and grandkids’ lists but you have a list, too. What you want for Christmas amounts to stuff. But what you want from Christmas is deeper than stuff. For is more material, from is more spiritual. In order for this season to be all that it can be (which is to say, in order for this season to really touch you and influence you for the better), what do you need from it? 

I’ll tell you what I need from Christmas this year: I need some settling in my soul. I’m fully aware that, like Santa Claus, this is my busiest time of year. No rest for the weary for preachers. I get all of that. So, when I say, “I’m in need of some calm or some soul-settling,” I’m not so much referring to a break from the normal hustle and bustle that comes with Christmas; what I’m talking about is more spiritual, more mental, more emotional. Every time Christmastime rolls around, I’m just a ball of anxiety. It’s the money being spent; it’s the travel; it’s the services to plan and sermons to preach; it’s the stress that comes with making sure my family has a good Christmas. I suspect many of you can relate. 

What do you want from Christmas? In worship we’ve tried to really emphasize the themes of Advent – you know, Hope, Peace, Joy, and, next week, Love. It could very well be that what you need is, say, hope because you feel hopeless. I know of churches that hold Blue Christmas services, because a lot of people feel blue this time of year. Maybe you need peace … peace in your family, peace in your own heart. And now we get joy. It’s sort of difficult not to feel at least some joy while being in this room. We have had a lot of good music and we’ll have more tonight, the sanctuary is well-decorated, and we are surrounded by people we love. But life will get harder at noon when we leave this place. And some of what we have in here, we won’t have out there. We could all stand to use a little joy from Christmas this year. 

Maybe some hope, some peace, some joy from Christmas…how about some backwoods kind of preachin’? I know no one here is itching for more repentance, but that’s what we have. We got some last week, and we will get more today. John’s back. I really don’t want to deal with John the Baptist again, but Luke says that John proclaimed the good news to the people. We translate the word gospel as “good news.” In essence, John comes preaching Jesus’ Gospel before Jesus even really gets started in his ministry. 

The UPS delivery man stopped by the house the other day. I happened to be outside. He walks up to me carrying four big boxes in his hands. He said, “Good news – I have four boxes with your name on them.” I didn’t take it as good news, because I had seen our Amazon account, and the end result was  not pretty. My point is, what some people say is good may not be what you or I say is good. John comes preaching good news – Gospel – but it doesn’t come across that way. He calls the people who follow him “snakes.” You bunch of snakes, he says. John was preaching a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 

John encourages the crowds to repent in order that they may receive the gift of forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Reptenance, for John, always comes first. Some may say, “Oh, that’s good – we like that….” But most of us would say, “Come on, John – shouldn’t forgiveness come first?!?” John would say no. John says, “Trim what needs to go. Change directions (that is what repentance means), and then bear fruit.” The proof is in the pudding. John doesn’t want us to point to our spiritual resume and say, “Hey, I’m a professional church-goer. Shouldn’t that be enough?” It’s not enough. We must bear fruit. 

I planted three rose bushes back in the spring. We had roses in Tennessee, so I wanted roses here, too. And they did okay. I didn’t expect them to go all out in this first year, but I can see some promise. Before we purchased our home in Erwin, someone had planted roses right beside the main entrance of our home, and the first year we lived there, once they were fully established, they were a sight to see. Buds were everywhere. But with each passing year, the buds were less and less impressive. So, I did some pruning, and it helped…some…but not like I had hoped. I was telling someone about my fair to middling roses (our teenagers have a word for this; they’d say my rose bushes were just “mid”), and the person I happened to be telling this to is a professional landscaper. He said, “Oh, a little trimming won’t do; if you really want those bushes to blossom, you are going to have to cut them all the way back, right to the nub.” Now the reason why I didn’t want to cut them all the way back is because it hurts. There’s a reason why Poison sang, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” Roses are pretty, but their thorns hurt. And I knew if I really started to chop, then my hands and fingers would get poked. 

This happens when you repent; repentance hurts. John knew it. Jesus knows it. It hurts because it requires change, and not only does it require change, it requires you to do something that maybe you don’t want to do. This verse about the ax lying at the root of the tree, and those trees that don’t produce will be cut down wouldn’t normally fall into the “good” category. I read this and think, “Thank goodness for the grace that Jesus offers, or I would have been thrown into that fire a long time ago.” But I do know that cheap grace is not God’s grace. And while there is grace, we do have responsibility to God and the Kingdom, and that is to bear good fruit. 

The crowds ask John, “What then should we do?” If you have an extra coat and it’s cold outside, share it. Do the same with food. He says to the tax collectors, “Quit ripping people off.” He says to the soldiers, “Quit threatening people.” I have some respect for these tax collectors and soldiers. Most people would have heard John preach this harsh message, and they would have left him in the dust. They don’t tuck tail and run; they stay, and they ask, “How should we live?” I place this question on the same level as, “What do I want from Christmas?” It’s not a shallow question; when I ask, “What do I want from Christmas?”… it’s like I am really wanting to grow in faith; I want to get better at this Christian thing. What can I learn or gain from Christmas that I don’t already have? Seems the crowds want to do the same. How do we bear fruit, so we can make this world a better place? 

What makes John’s preaching “good”? It’s certainly not warm and fuzzy, is it? Maybe we should alter our definition of what “good” means. What is good to us is not necessarily good in God’s kingdom. What is good enough for John and Jesus should be good enough for us. Since it is Joy Sunday, I do hope you find some joy from Christmas this year. 

I would offer you this: I often find joy when I see Jesus moving around me. And I see Jesus the most when I’m going about his business. I’ll leave it at that.

http://edentonbaptist.org/history

https://archive.org/details/historyofedenton00thor/page/n11/mode/2up